System and method for processing commands from a plurality of control sources
First Claim
1. A system for producing a single command for a controlled system from a plurality of control sources, said system comprising:
- a plurality of control sources each responding to inputs to produce a command output represented as a piece-wise constant preference level profile covering a full continuous range of allowable command values;
means for representing the piece-wise constant preference level profiles in terms of attributes in order to easily combine and sort the preference level profiles to obtain a total profile within a bounded time period;
means for creating the total profile from the combination of individual preference level profiles of the plurality of control sources by adding the preference level profiles for each of the plurality of control sources;
means for determining a peak zone in said total profile having the largest preference level; and
means for producing a desired response in the controlled system to the command indicated by said peak zone.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system for obtaining collective decisions from multiple control sources. The system is able to produce a single command from these control sources. Each control source corresponds to a behavior and each responds to inputs to produce a command. The system employs a piece-wise constant preference profile composed of zones, spikes, and clamps which compress the amount of the amount of data required to process behavior preferences. The system sorts commands according to command values in a chart to produce a total profile which represents the combination of profiles of the command values for multiple behaviors. The peak zone in the total profile is then used to produce a desired response to the multiple commands. The system allows behaviors to be combined through command fusion rather than subsumption. The piece-wise constant representation allows behavior commands to be combined after they have been passed through a standard control system. This permits behaviors to use any derivative of the control source'"'"'s variable that is appropriate for their function. The system has a bounded arbitration time so that control loop stability will not be disrupted by the arbitration process. The system also incorporates a method for smoothing behavior switching transients.
-
Citations
28 Claims
-
1. A system for producing a single command for a controlled system from a plurality of control sources, said system comprising:
-
a plurality of control sources each responding to inputs to produce a command output represented as a piece-wise constant preference level profile covering a full continuous range of allowable command values; means for representing the piece-wise constant preference level profiles in terms of attributes in order to easily combine and sort the preference level profiles to obtain a total profile within a bounded time period; means for creating the total profile from the combination of individual preference level profiles of the plurality of control sources by adding the preference level profiles for each of the plurality of control sources; means for determining a peak zone in said total profile having the largest preference level; and means for producing a desired response in the controlled system to the command indicated by said peak zone. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A system for arbitrating multiple commands for a controlled system from a plurality of control sources, each responding to inputs to produce a command output, said system comprising:
-
means for generating a command output represented as a piece-wise constant preference level profile covering a full continuous range of allowable command values; means for representing the piece-wise constant preference level profiles in terms of attributes in order to easily combine and sort the preference level profiles to obtain a total profile within a bounded time period; means for creating the total profile from the combination of preference level profiles of the plurality of control sources by adding the preference level profiles for each of the plurality of control sources; means for determining a peak zone in said total profile having the largest preference level; and means for producing a desired response in the controlled system to the command indicated by said peak zone. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method for arbitrating multiple commands for a controlled system from multiple behaviors, said method comprising:
-
providing a plurality of control sources, each responding to inputs to produce a command output represented as a piece-wise constant preference level profile, covering a full continuous range of allowable command values; representing the piece-wise constant preference level profiles in terms of attributes in order to combine and sort the preference level profiles to obtain a total profile within a bounded time period; creating the total profile from the combination of preference level profiles of the plurality of control sources by adding the preference level profiles for each of the plurality of control sources; determining a peak zone in said total profile having the largest preference level; and producing the desired response in the controlled system in response to the command indicated by said peak zone. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
-
-
25. A system for arbitrating multiple commands from a plurality of control sources, each responding to inputs to produce a command output, said system comprising:
-
sensor interface unit for sampling data from a plurality of sensors; behavior central processing unit (CPU) for reading data from said sensor interface unit and generating new command data represented as a piecewise constant profile; behavior command memory for storing said piecewise constant profile; control CPU for transforming command issued by behaviors into control commands that are suitable to control actuators; arbitration CPU for analyzing command preference profiles to obtain unique command values including means for generating a table of sorted behavior commands for actuators to be controlled; command profile memory for storing said command preference profiles; said arbitration CPU further comprising means for selecting a peak zone in a total preference profile; actuator interface unit for receiving unique command values generated by said arbitration CPU representing said peak command zone, and for generating signals controlling said actuators.
-
-
26. A system for producing a single command for a controlled system from a plurality of control sources, said system comprising:
-
a plurality of control sources each responding to inputs to produce a command output represented as a piece-wise constant preference level profile covering a full continuous range of allowable command values; means for representing the piece-wise constant preference level profiles in terms of attributes in order to combine and sort the preference level profiles to obtain a total profile within a bounded time period; means for creating the total profile from the combination of individual preference level profiles obtained from the plurality of control sources, and means for producing a desired response in the controlled system on the basis of the shape of the total profile. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
-
Specification